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Parenting Stepchildren and Biological Children

The Effects of Stepparent's Gender and New Biological Children

Ohio State University at Newark

ALFRED DeMARIS

Bowling Green State University

Evolutionary views suggest that stepparents find it more difficult to parent stepchildren than to parent biological children. However, gender stratification perspectives suggest that stepmothers are more likely than are stepfathers to experience role conflict in acting as both a stepparent and a biological parent. Therefore, especially when new biological children are added to the stepfamily, stepmothers, more often than stepfathers, may experience greater relative difficulty parenting their stepchildren. Using a sample of 139 stepparents with both residential stepchildren and residential biological children, we determined that stepmothers are in fact more likely than are stepfathers to find it more difficult to rear stepchildren than to rear biological children. However, we also discovered that when stepparents add new biological children to their stepfamilies, both stepmothers and stepfathers find it more difficult to derive satisfaction from stepchildren than from biological children only if their new biological children are their firstborn biological children.

Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 17, No. 1, 5-25 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/019251396017001002


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